Bandipur & Gopalaswamy Betta

After our last successful trip to Mekedhatu , we were eager to go out once again and this time we were planning for a 2 day trip. I was going through the blogs and forums for a weekend getaway when someone suggested Bandipur. That's when we started exploring about Bandipur and its Wild life. We were all excited thinking about spending a night in the wilderness.

We did some more exploration and found out Jungle Lodges to be one of the best lodges at Bandipur . Jungle Lodges provided a one day itinerary in which we were provided with Accomodation , Food , Jeep Safari, Nature Trek and also some other recreational facilities. So we went up their office in M.G. Road and booked our accommodation.

We were all fully excited about going into the jungles and spending a night in the wilderness , but in a way it was a disappointment , JLR have a resort which is away from the reserve , not quite what we expected . We expected it to be within or near to the reserve ;-) . Apart from that JLR was an amazing place to stay . The cottages were huge and well furnished , food was ok , but definitely not bad.

At about 4:30 in the evening we went into the jungle , luckily the whole gang we went fitted into the jeep and it was like having our own vehicle . The change in the atmosphere was imminent , the scent of the natural surroundings filled our heart with joy . We had to wait at the check point near the entry to the reserve , as we had booked the trip via JLR , we had no probs and in a matter of few minutes we were rolling into the jungle.

We saw a large herd of deers grazing , the number could easily be in some hundreds, thou the jeep's engine was growling, the deers were least bothered , some of them were as if they were posing for the camera :-). We drove deep into the jungle on the way we saw some langurs , peacocks , lots of bison.

We were now approaching deeper parts of the jungle where the trees very clustered very closely , the driver warned us saying that ,whatever happens dont jump out of the jeep. We were eagerly looking out for the tiger ,elephants and any wild animals , but we were not so lucky ,we were moving about from one waterhole to another, just to catch a glimpse of any wild animal.

It was getting darker by the minute, still no sign of any wild animal , the driver then decides to call it a day and head back to the high way , as we were approaching the highway we herd some noises , the driver stopped the jeep and pointed towards the bushes on our right , everyone in the jeep sprang up to look at a herd of elephants passing by , it so happened that we were right in the path of elephants and the elephants were waiting for us to move , so that they can proceed. There was a jeep in front of us ,looking at the elephants he just stopped the jeep midway , so that everyone can see the majestic beings. The elephants waited for a few moments as the visitors clicked away to glory , after some time , one of the elephants started getting impatient and gave a wild roar by raising its trunk , everyone for a moment thought that its gonna charge at us .

The driver kept his cool and again reminded us not to jump out of the vehicle under any circumstances. We were all standing at the back of the jeep not knowing whats gonna happen next. In the midst of all this drama , we failed to notice an elephant cub in the middle of the herd. The cub was well protected by two adults forming a V shape in front of the cub. We could hear occassional grunts from the little one , the driver in front of us moved forward and we followed , we just went a few yards forward and the jeep halted , everyone turned around to see the elephants cross the path with the cub pacing in between two adults.

We then started our journey back to the resort where we had a campfire arranged , a documentary on Bandipur on a big screen followed by dinner . Next day morning we were scheduled to have a nature trek but we pleaded with the authorities to provide us another jeep safari. After much persuading , we were allowed to go on a jeep safari but for a price ;-) . This time our objective was clear and that was to spot a wild cat.

We told the driver our objective and he immediately led us to a part of the jungle which was secluded from the other areas of the jungle . There was a board which said , do not enter without permission and the road leading into the jungle was blocked by a check post sort of barrier. Our driver stopped the jeep , and asked my friend to go and raise the barrier and we moved into the secluded territory.

He took us to places where the wild cat usually makes it rounds , he took us on top of a peak , the view from that place was superb , there are no words to describe the view , we were busy clicking snaps when the driver asked us to board the jeep immediately , it was not until he swirled round the first bend , he explained the reason for hi actions , it seems that he had heard the deer's frantic warning call when it sees a tiger .

We were all excited hearing that and we kept our eyes wide open to spot the wild cat , he took us to the place where we passed a deer herd on our way to the top , we couldnt find any of the deers there , he slowly drove the jeep , keeping his eyes and ears open . After a few minutes , he stopped the jeep and pointed towards something on the ground , they were fresh imprints of a huge paw , which he claimed to be of the tiger. We were not so lucky to get a glimpse of the wild cat but we were fortunate enough to catch an imprint of its paw ;)

We then headed back to the resort where a nice breakfast was arranged and after our fill we headed back to Mysore and on the way we took a detour to Gopalaswamy betta . We reached the top of Gopalaswamy betta and had a darshan of Lord Gopalaswamy (Krishna) and then we spent most of the time taking pics around the temple . The place was lush green and with mountains in the back drop , it seemed like heaven on earth. From there we reached Mysore and had our lunch , and on our way back to Bangalore we had a brief stop at Srirangapatnam Temple.